A SoCal Saturday Urban Hike

[Scott Gilmore]

Back on 1st Avenue, we saw this vibrant patch of San Diego Red bougainvillea. When visiting San Diego, many people don't realize that less than 100 years ago there were very few trees here at all - just some scrub oaks that rarely get over 25 feet high. This is the desert. Our water is imported, but we've put it to good use. The palms, eucalyptus, deciduous and coniferous trees are all imported.



A bit later on we came to the 1st Avenue bridge. The Brooklyn bridge it ain't, granted, but I like it nonetheless. It's 464 feet long and 104 feet high at its highest point.

By the way, all those trees you see are commonly referred to around here as fuel. (Shudder)



Hey! Who's that fine looking woman? Is she stalking me?



In 1911, the residents in this area floated a bond to build this bridge to connect the Banker's Hill area to downtown San Diego. On a clear day (which this, thankfully, wasn't), you can see halfway to Hawaii from here. Today we could see Coronado's North Island Naval Station. It's hard to make out, but there's an aircraft carrier parked there being refitted. The land beyond is Point Loma.



The bridge fords urban-wild land, not a river as it might in wetter parts of the world.

As we approach downtown, just as we come under the flight path for San Diego's Lindberg Field, there are some beautiful Victorians built when this was naught but a two-horse town and some folks had money ...